1. Field
The present invention relates generally to the field of communications, and more particularly, to communications in a cellular communication system.
2. Background
In code division multiple access (CDMA) communication systems, unnecessary and excessive transmission by a mobile station user or base-station may cause interference for other mobile station users in addition to reducing the system capacity. The communication system may provide communication services that include wireless radio transmission of digitized speech, still or moving images, text messages and other types of data. An encoder in a transmitter of the communication system may receive a packet of data for encoding. Each data packet may be transmitted in a time frame. A receiving destination may report a channel condition such as carrier to interference (C/I) information to the transmitting source before transmission of the data packet. The C/I information may be used by the transmitting source to select and adjust the power level and/or data rate of transmission of the data packet. The C/I measurement may be made several time slots before the transmission time of the data packet. The channel condition, however, may change drastically over several time slots. As such, the selected power level and data rate may not be at an optimum level. Therefore, the selected data rate and the power level may be higher or lower than the optimum level for the channel condition at the transmission time.
To this end as well as others, there is a need for a method and apparatus for efficient use of communication resources in a communication system.
A method and apparatus provides for efficient use of communication resources in a CDMA communication system by selecting, at a time prior to a first time period, a first mobile station to receive transmission during the first time period on a downlink shared channel, and selecting, at a time prior to the first time period, a second mobile station to receive transmission during a second time period on the downlink shared channel. Transmission power level of a downlink shared control channel is determined for transmission to the second mobile station during an overlapping time period with the first time period, and the transmission power level of the downlink shared channel for transmission during the first time period is determined based on at least the determined transmission power level of the downlink shared control channel during the overlapping time period with the first time period.